i know we are all about privacy in usa yet I can go buy more data on you then you know about yourself. but why are we not rolled out any kind of tracing tech around phones and this virus? other countries have it and I hear of it here once in a while but this should be a thing like wearing a seatbelt. everyone! i mean are we going to REALLY stop the nsa and police state or this virus? sounds like neither. its september and no trace tech in sight. we could have spent a billion of the trillions we will spend and have spent on this to have a test and trace tech mechanism and could truly attack this virus.. weve been saying this now since march and its september and lets keep spending trillions! still need to military mobilize tests and trace..national effort... nail this situation for once and for all with test tech trace. the idea of this being as it is and just screw it mentality is so defeatist and more expensive ultimately..more dead. thats why we need to get rid of trump clearly this is not working. we need a real plan and real leaders. this election is big for the virus and if only it could happen sooner we could get better action into place sooner
See that's the thing, everyone of the 184,000 losses is a tragedy to somebody. To discount the impact by quoting a statistic is an affront to those folks. It's a failure of humanness or soullessness, a systemic lack of empathy. Profit/loss and the impact on the self are the only metric for some. But they shouldn't be in charge of anything but their own enterprise, it's certainly not the basis of government, a cooperative, collective endeavor to promote the welfare of all citizens. And frankly, that's what this Presidential election is about.
it's been a while so other than my forever pain it's not immediately painful. I just brought it up to humanize the effects of Covid and America's horrific response to counter Trader *******'s statistical rebuke. In the other thread you are hammering Cuomo and NY, but I can forgive mistakes of active response. I can never forgive a President's open denial of fact for personal ratings. That's the coldest most inhuman response. And really opening? has any condition changed since we tried to flatten the curve and 40% of Americans followed their President to resist necessary steps. A little bit down here and a little bit up there (red States) but the exposure risks are exactly the same... statistically
I appreciate the response and again am very sorry for your loss. A good friend of mine lost both his parents in the same week, so I know how painful the past nine months have been for many people. On the other hand many of Cuomo's actions have been not just heavy-handed but entirely misguided. I won't cite the nursing home "mistake," but a current one he is making right now. Cuomo has arbitrarily set a number of 100 cases as the threshold for closing colleges and universities and forcing them to move from in-person to online instruction for a minimum of two weeks until they can get their case count down below that figure. This goes for schools with 1000 students and for schools with 20,000 students. What this does in effect, however, is penalize the schools that are doing daily testing versus schools who simply roll the dice and wait for 100 symptomatic cases to show up. Where I work shot up from 15 to 39 cases yesterday, all but one of which are asymptomatic. We expect to cross the 100 case limit next week and be forced to go to online instruction. Note what that implies: rather than students sitting in classrooms six feet apart, one-way entrances into and exiting classrooms, mandated mask use, daily testing to maintain their good standing for on-campus, in-person instruction . . . ALL OF THAT goes out the window as students are forced back into their dormitories and apartments to do virtual instruction. And everything else that students do in dormitories and apartments--which is to say socialize and have parties. That's how the 39 cases arose, also: from a single super-spreader at a single off-campus party. Which is known because of contact tracing. Now when Cuomo's forced closure is thrust upon the university that has conscientiously been trying to do it right every step of the way, all of that goes out the window. The university no longer has any control over its students. The university no longer has any leverage over its students to force them to comply with its social distancing requirements. All because Cuomo wants to look like he's doing something. All because Cuomo has been involved in some kind of anti-Washington, "I'm not Trump" pissing match in order to look good. All because Cuomo wants to look the Leader while he's selling his "How to be a Leader and Beat Covid" book coming out next month. Yes, I am hammering Cuomo in the other thread. But I am hammering him because he deserves to be hammered.
I believe we already have access to it. And it recently launched (this week even?). Via Google. But it's an app that is only available in a few states. Not sure why it's even a state-level thing, but it is. If Texas WANTED it, we'd have it, via user opt-in of course. Let's be honest, people with a lot of $$$ sway simply do not want to scare consumers. So convenient and helpful tools like this (or mail in voting) get iced.
Dubious I hadn't heard that before and am very sorry for your loss. You're absolutely right. We get lost in the statistics forgetting that behind everyone is a real person with a family and friends.
Why is this nonsense still happening in America during a pandemic. Republican Governor? COVID-19: Doctor calls Baker High School football game ‘Super-Spreader’ “It is a critical lack of leadership from the top down to the bottom up,” said Dr. Jeffrey Goldhagen. https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/baker-county/covid-19-doctor-calls-baker-high-school-football-game-super-spreader/BS6CNXZZM5AIPDHAGAOD2ENZFE/
thats my point..its september and no plan or the notion of this being a thing yet rolled out elsewhere internationally. my hope on stuff like this is biden gets in and there is a renewed or push for it. im sure if mcconnell and trump made an app it might get more run. shame we have to all wait due to this bureaucracy
Dubious, I did not know this -- I can't believe I would have forgotten. Terribly sorry to hear of that, as others have said, and appreciate you sharing that to bring some of the reality home for people. On the larger topic of how 184,000 doesn't compute for people, it's definitely not just b/c they are not compassionate. It's innately difficult for human beings. Interesting project that tries to raise awareness of the the phenomenon: https://www.arithmeticofcompassion.org/psychic-numbing By the way, there's very convincing evidence (discussed in other threads) that the virus was here in November, (when unexplained deaths in the US began to sharply rise over the normal rate), and it's likely you are correct in that diagnosis. Condolences, truly.
Very solid criticism of the policy. Conjecture. Arguably there are public health reason for not giving a 20,000 student-body school license to have a large % of positive cases, as each of those students could take it home to their communities and families. Again, I think 100 sounds arbitrary and crazy, without hearing the rationale behind it, and I totally agree they are penalizing schools that are trying to "do the right thing" (absent avoiding in-person instruction, which is what a lot of schools chose). But I also think we have to just sit with the fact that there is no perfect strategy in a virus this contagious and with this many asymptomatic cases. Every strategy is going to have stupid factors in it. As soon as Cuomo let schools make their own decision (which I think a lot of people applaud, versus, say the edicts of local government where I live), he was in very difficult position for making guidelines for when the experiment "fails." I'm not a big Cuomo fan at all, but "pissing match with Trump" applies to literally any human who has the courage to stand up to DJT in any way, shape, or form. All evidence supports that. Unless you go the way of Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, or Barr, you're going to end up trading blows with the guy. And we need people, especially conservatives, who are willing to stand up to what that person is doing and saying, when his deeds are harmful and his words are counter-factual and divisive.
This past Thursday I signed up with my sister, who survived the virus, and her husband to volunteer at the Faith Center here in Spring Branch. Her husband used to do the preachin' at Long Point Baptist back when Lowry and Gogi shared the back court for Houston circa 2010/2011ish. One of My one million tios is still there, the Salvadoran at the end: https://www.lpbchouston.org/about-us Anyhow, I came out with a couple of observations: 1.) if you're single and in your early 20s you might want to volunteer at these places. 21 year old white girls all over the place like it was a Snoop DOg concert. And if I were Paulfsk and rated these volunteers,which I wouldn't do such thing, They'd rate off the chart. 2.) People, all races, were coming in droves to pick up 2 sacks of groceries. Many had nice new cars. It was hard to see. People that have been volunteering longer said there has been a huge surge since the virus began. They had never this much activity, which disproves some that say people are just trying to get over the system. It hit the hardest when an older latina lady asked me if I knew the days when they gave out milk. From what I learned, Borden makes donations every 2 weeks or so. 3.) the things we were giving out were ...well you know, what's an appropriate way of saying too white? ahh..too hipster. Dark rye bread, organic celery salsa, single package of a fig newton, organic peanut butter, a box of wheat thins, coconut milk from trader joe's. Most of the stuff was from trader Joe's and some kind of weird fish I've never heard of before with 2 days to go before the expiration date Oh and a red rose for the older women. I asked my tio afterwards, why not even powdered milk? During war time I still remember powdered milk. I even like it. 4.) I get the magas reluctance to wear masks. It was humid and hot. I hate other people watching me sweat. I might have pulled a Vandelay and left a little earlier. Props to the real volunteers. And as we start to reopen- so many are still struggling barely making ends meet.
I have been getting groceries delivered and avoid going into businesses unless absolutely necessary. Today I stopped at a local mail center because I needed two cards mailed internationally. So, I walk in with my mask and stand as far as possible from the lady across the counter who was not wearing a mask. As she asked how it's going I said OK, and mentioned I'm not working right now as a teacher. She goes "Why, because of Covid?" So I mentioned I do a lot of close contact work in Special Ed and can't take the risk. Then she goes on babbling about how she doesn't think kids are Covid spreaders like they say...blah blah. I said, "Well, some teachers have already died of Covid", and she says "Really?" like she never heard such a thing. Don't we still have a mask law inside these local Houston businesses? I thought it was required. This is why I avoid going out. There are too many Trump followers who think this thing is over. Ridiculous.
if I see workers not wearing a mask, that’s an immediate u-turn and straight to the exits for me...same thing if I see them wearing them, but below the nose...it tells me u don’t give a damn
Honestly, I should have done that. I just didn't feel like driving to another post office. But, I won't be going back there, where the owner doesn't seem to give a damn about mask laws or consideration of her customers now. She wore one last time I went there, but that was probably a couple months ago.
I've noticed more and more people not wearing mask at the grocery store. I can not say what political party they belong to just by looking. But it seemed to be a little bit of everyone all ages, races, and genders.
